In playing tennis and other racket-type games, such as squash and badminton, the stiffness or bendability of the handle plays an important role. For that reason, an expert player may have several rackets, using a different one to suit his needs in the game in which he finds himself. A tennis player, for instance, may wish a stiff handle for serving and a relatively bendable handle when he is receiving the ball. Owning and maintaining more than one racket is, of course, expensive. Furthermore, it is relatively awkward to carry more than one racket, and provide each one with adequate maintenance. At the same time, changing from one racket to another leads to the difficulty that the handles may feel differently and the strings may feel slightly different. In general, a player would rather use his "favorite" racket with all its unique characteristics than change from one racket to another. These and other difficulties experienced with the prior art devices have been obviated in a novel manner by the present invention.
It is, therefore, an outstanding object of the invention to provide a racket for tennis and the like in which a single racket is capable of having its striking characteristics changed selectively by the player.
Another object of this invention is the provision of a tennis racket or the like in which the bending moment of the handle can be readily changed.
A further object of the present invention is the provision of a tennis racket whose playing characterisitics can be radically changed during play by the player.
It is another object of the invention to provide a tennis racket in which the operation of a dial located at the end of a handle can result in the immediate selective changing of the bending characteristics of the racket.
A still further object of the invention is the provision of a tennnis racket having apparatus that permits the use of a single racket in place of several rackets of different characteristics, thus resulting in a saving in cost and convenience as well as obviating the problems inherent in owning and maintaining more than one racket.
Another object of the invention is to provide, inherently in its unique design, vibration damping characteristics which result in a smoother feel during impact and less shock effect in the player's hand and arm.
A further object of this invention is to provide a racket which will import a greater degree of its kinetic energy directly to the ball, through the effective damping of vibrations during impact, rather than the consumption of energy in vibration.